Many underwater operations, such as drilling for and production of oil and gas, installation and maintenance of offshore structures, or laying and maintaining underwater pipelines require the use of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV).
The deployment of an ROV is typically achieved by launching the unit from either a bottom founded or floating host platform or from a dynamically positioned marine vessel dedicated specifically for the purpose of supporting an ROV's and other installation and subsea intervention equipment, e.g. a multi service vessel (MSV).
Both bottom founded and floating host platforms can be fixed in position at the site and are normally engaged in collateral activities such as drilling and offshore production or construction. Thus, the operations of the ROV can be limited according to the distance that the ROV can travel from the host platform as well as by restrictions in operating periods due to the collateral activities of the host platform.
In the case of dedicated vessel deployment such as an MSV, significant costs can be associated with operation of a fully founded marine vessel and its mobilization to and from the ROV work site. Typically, a dedicated MSV may have a crew of twenty, large AHC cranes, and other considerable cost not directly related to the operation of the ROV.
ROV operation and monitoring can be controlled from the host platform or MSV by means of an umbilical line between the host platform or MSV and the TMS (Tether Management System) which stores a limited amount of tether to connect to the ROV. It can be seen from this that the operational distance of the ROV can be directly related to the length of the tether capacity on the TMS unit.
A need exists for an improved launch and recovery system that utilizes pass through tether management system concepts and advantages while addressing most prominent drawbacks of current systems.
A further need exists for an improved launch and recovery system that can be containerization for standard shipping that can include simple accurate active heave compensation and that has passive guidance for heavy weather deployments.
A further need exists for an improved launch and recovery system that include redundant passive overload that eliminates the need for hydraulic power units and can have easy dead ROV recovery capability.
A further need exists for a pass through tether management system with a launch and recovery system connected to a processor with data storage and a power supply, and a tether management component connected to the launch and recovery system enabling a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to be lifted and deployed in water without the need for an armored umbilical.
The present embodiments meet these needs.
The present embodiments are detailed below with reference to the listed Figures.